The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is pulling back on its plan to furlough agents and slash overtime.

Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski told workers Monday morning that the agency for now is postponing planned furloughs of up to 14 days and a ban on overtime.

“Please continue to proceed in a manner which ensures that we are able to carry out our national security mandate,” Winkowski said in a letter to agency workers.

He attributed the suspension in the agency's response to sequestration cuts to an appropriations bill signed by President Barack Obama last week that gives it more flexibility.

“Although the budget reductions imposed by sequestration are significant, the bill’s provisions allow (Customs and Border Protection) to mitigate to some degree the impacts of the reduced budget on operations and workforce,” he wrote in the letter addressed to all agency workers.

Winkowski said the agency is re-examining its entire budget in an attempt to minimize any impact on employees.

Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council that represents 17,000 line agents in collective bargaining including about 2,200 in the San Diego sector, said he believes the announcement is in response to congressional pressure and media reports about the possible effect of furloughs and overtime cancellation on border security.

“We’re happy about this but we want to see some kind of permanence,” said Moran, whose office is based in Solana Beach. “It’s a final-minute reprieve.”

He also predicted that could rise dramatically if agents were furloughed and ordered not to incur any overtime.

The overtime cancellation particularly comes into play when agents are tracking suspected unauthorized immigrant crossings and illicit smuggling, according to Moran.

He envisioned scenarios in which agents would reach the end of an eight-hour shift and have to break off such missions because of a ban on overtime and no replacement agents available to assume the mission.